Carbon Fast: Make do and mend

Do you have clothes you could wear for longer if you gave them a little TLC? Spend some time doing old-fashioned mending. ‘1.2 million tonnes of clothing waste every year goes into UK landfills’ (UK government, Act on CO2). Methane – a potent greenhouse gas – is emitted in landfill sites. Reducing the quantity of clothes and other products we buy reduces the waste that ends up in landfills and also reduces emissions from manufacturing and transporting these goods.

Father God, please calm the unsustainable rate of consumption and transform us into people who are content with what we have rather than striving to own more and more. Amen.

www.tearfund.org/carbonfast

Church leaders call for 'technology fast'

Church leaders are urging people to give up iPods rather than chocolate this Lent as part of a 'technology fast' to save the planet as well as our souls:

• TearFund Carbon Fast 2010 webpages
• Telegraph article

Shrove Tuesday

• Basic pancake recipe


• Give your pancake recipes a twist with these simple filling ideas


• How to serve Michelin-starred pancakes


• Pancake Day essentials


• What makes the perfect pancake?

Palm Sunday

Outside the Holy City
Unnumbered footsteps throng,
And crowded mart and streets of trade
Fling back a swelling song.
The voices echo nearer,
In flaming hope they sing:
“Throw down your branches at His feet!
Hosanna to the King!”

Once more beside a city
The Son of David waits,
Once more the children throng to bring
A welcome at the gates.
Within are hearts sore burdened
And feet that go astray;
O Christ of God, come near and walk
Our city streets today!

The branches that we offer
Are no unmeaning sign;
Take Thou the hands we lift on high
And make them wholly Thine.
No songs of shallow welcome
Are these we raise to Thee;
O give us faith to face the cross
And set Thy city free!

A distant music mingles
With all our songs today,
The chorale from a city fair
Where sin has passed away.
There rides the Christ triumphant
And victor songs ring clear;
O God, give us the strength to build
With Christ that city here!

(Outside the Holy City, James G. Gilkey)

Students swear off Facebook for Lent

From an academic blog comes the news that some students have given up Facebook for Lent. Students nonplussed by the absence of certain friends from their Facebook news feeds in the last month may have the church calendar to blame. During the season of Lent some students at Texas Tech and elsewhere have reportedly sworn off social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
The pope has lauded such Web sites in the past for helping to strengthen friendship and understanding, but many students acknowledge that they offer hazardously convenient ways to waste time.

Reading for Holy Week

Last year I blogged about the e-book Lenten Lights - a collection of readings that can to be used daily during Holy Week.

Another e-book appropriate for meditation during Lent is Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die by John Piper. It is a book of fifty short readings about the meaning of Jesus' death, and can be downloaded for free here.

Carbon Fast Day 36: travelling light

Today's Carbon Fast action is to travel light. We are encouraged to think before we drive and seek to cycle, share lifts with colleagues, or use public transport. Find out more about cycle routes in the UK at http://www.sustrans.org.uk/

We are further challenged to travel light with our possessions and the value we give them. Where may we have more than we need? How can we bless others in need through our abundance? And where we may have need, we should remember God's faithfulness and ask him to be our provider.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matthew 6:19-21

Bishop's Lent Pilgrimage

During Lent 2008 Bishop Tim undertook a pilgrimage of 215 miles, visiting 114 churches in the Leicester Diocese. In 2009 he is focussing his thoughts and actions on the communities where people are struggling most, sharing in acts of care and service as well as taking time to listen.

The theme of this time of action is ‘Strengthen our Hands’, a theme taken from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah (see Neh. 6:9). A manual has been produced for the pilgrimage to enable everyone to share in the experience through prayer and an increasing understanding of the problems. You can download the Bishop's pilgrimage manual online at www.leicester.anglican.org and read his blog here.

Acting on the Biblical imperative to care for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned and the exiled, Bishop Tim will spend time visiting communities where people are struggling the most. He will visit the elderly, the sick, the young, the unemployed and the addicted during an extended timetable of action in the six weeks of Lent, including ten full days of visits. Where possible the Bishop will use public transport to travel to the days’ venue where, in addition to service users, he will meet with local clergy, volunteers and the professionals working in the community.

Fasting and feasting

As Fairtrade Fortnight ends, check out the cartoon from Dave Walker on how Lent and Fairtrade Fortnight cancel out each other.

Guilt and chocolate

Last year we discovered a church that encouraged its parishioners to buy chocolate during Lent! This year, it is scientific research on guilt and chocolate bars. The Development of the Attitudes to Chocolate Questionnaire is a cheap, fairly accurate way to measure chocolate craving and also to measure guilt. Reporting on the use of this tool, the researchers announce that they made an exciting new psychological discovery: that "craving but not guilt was associated with the eating of chocolate bars".

Carbon Fast Day 8

Today's Carbon Fast challenge follows on from recognising that the world's poorest people are suffering the most from climate change yet they have contributed the least to the problem. It is to go to www.tearfund.org/carbonfastaction to speak up for action in the UK and other rich countries to cut their emissions and for help for poor communities to adapt to the changing climate.

We are futher encouraged to "tell one friend about the Carbon Fast and encourage them to take today's campaign action" - hence this post!

Father, thank you for being a God who searches out the poor and vulnerable. Help me to put a face to climate change, so that it is not just an issue, but it's about a person who You created. Remind me of these people impacted by climate change whenever I feel unmotivated to make changes in my life.

Drink Fairtrade

Don't read on if you have given up alcohol for Lent...

Fairtrade wine used to be regarded as inferior but it's now seen as good value, fruity and easily drinkable. Check out Worthy, but tasty, an article about Fairtrade wine. Maybe you should try one of these bottles during Fairtrade Fortnight?

See also: Fairtrade communion wine

Lent devotionals

This Lent IVP is running a free online devotionals service. Each day for 40 days, you will be able to log on and read a short extract from an IVP book which the publishers hope will encourage you and teach you more about our great God and saviour. Visit the service and bookmark it at http://www.ivpbooks.com/lent.

See also all Lent-related blog posts.

Pancake Day!

...or rather, Shrove Tuesday.

Stuck for a recipe? You can opt for the traditional pancake recipe, alternative recipes (from Lakeland Limited), or Michelin-starred pancakes (from the Guardian).

Carbon Fast for Lent

Ash Wednesday falls in a week's time, so it's a good time to publicise the Carbon Fast campaign that Tearfund are encouraging us to consider this Lent - cutting our carbon use and helping protect poor people from climate change. You can sign up to receive daily emails during the Carbon Fast - each email includes the daily action, facts, prayers and reflection.

'Love does no harm to its neighbour' (Romans 13:10). Climate change can mean our neighbours go hungry because of drought, or lose their homes because of floods. Faced with that reality, there are many things we can do, acting as part of the global church's response, to change the way our lives impact poor communities.

Love Life Live Lent 2009 launched

Suggested acts of kindness in the third instalment of the Church of England’s Love Life Live Lent programme (launched last week) include having a clear out of unwanted clothes and toys and donating them to a charity shop, producing simple home-made gifts for Mothering Sunday, creating a prayer space in the understairs cupboard, making a bird cake or learning some basic first aid skills.

Checkout the Love Life Live Lent website to:
Find out more about Love Life Live Lent
Download support for churches
Download support for schools
Buy copies of the booklets

Diary of Lent Pilgrimage

In Leicester's Lent Pilgrimage we noted that the Bishop of Leicester was planning on walking through all the deaneries and many of the parishes of the Diocese of Leicester on a Lent Pilgrimage. Called Crossing the Diocese, this involved walking 215 miles and visiting 114 churches. An online diary of the pilgrimage is now available.

Easter Sunday: Hallelujah!

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

Thine be the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death hast won

God’s riches at Christ’s expense

I've had a couple of lengthy car journeys earlier this week, listening to the album The Best of Stuart Townend Live as I drove. I kept hitting replay on this track: Lord I'm grateful (Grace). The full lyrics are here and, while it is a fairly boisterous song to have running through your head in Holy Week, the words offer a concise summary of the Good News of Easter:

Freely given, but bought with priceless blood,
My life was ransomed at Calvary.
There my Jesus gave everything He could
That I might live for eternity.

‘Cause it’s grace!
There’s nothing I can do
To make You love me more,
To make You love me less than You do.
And by faith
I’m standing on this Stone
Of Christ and Christ alone,
Your righteousness is all that I need,
‘Cause it’s grace!

Lenten Lights

As Holy Week approaches, here's a final Lent resource: Lenten Lights: eight Biblical devotions to prepare for Easter. This is a collection of readings from Noel Piper that can to be used weekly during Lent OR daily during Holy Week. Each reading begins with a few sentences that summarise the thought for the day. All the rest is Scripture - letting God speak to us directly from His Word. The devotions finish on Good Friday with the comment:

"This worst day in history is also good because of the reconciliation that comes through the cross".